More than half of Americans think marijuana use is ‘socially …

An
older woman smokes a marijuana joint at Hempfest on August 21,
2004 in Seattle, Washington. More than 150,000 people were
expected to attend Hempfest at Seattle’s Myrtle Edwards Park on
Seattle’s waterfront on August 21-22, 2004. The event is billed
as the world’s largest drug-policy reform rally. Events included
political speakers and dozens of bands and performers on six
stages and over 20 organizations were present registering new
voters.
Ron Wurzer/Getty
Images

(Mic) — A survey of Americans’ views on
marijuana found that a majority of people think the drug is
“socially acceptable” — a position that likely puts them at odds
with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who said in March that
a marijuana habit is only “slightly less awful” than heroin
addiction.

The poll,

conducted in March

by Marist in
partnership with Yahoo News, surveyed 1,122 U.S. adults and found
that 56% said using marijuana was socially acceptable,
compared with 42% who said it was socially unacceptable and 2%
who were “unsure.”

The survey also revealed that 49% of respondents, nearly
half, said they supported legalizing recreational marijuana. So
far, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts,
Nevada, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have all
legalized the recreational use of marijuana. But the drug is
still illegal at the federal level — it’s federally classified as
a Schedule 1 drug, the same level as heroin.

The Obama administration moved away from enforcing
federal drug law in the states that had legalized
marijuana for recreation or medical uses, but that could
change under the Trump administration. Sessions has indicated he
wants to

revive

the war on drugs, which
could mean taking a harsher stance on enforcing
marijuana policy.

However, as the new Marist/Yahoo News poll found,
marijuana use is fairly widespread. Fifty-two percent of
respondents said they had tried the drug at least once.
And

54%

of people who said they use
marijuana are parents.

If Sessions moves forward on plans to crackdown on
marijuana use, it’s likely to be an unpopular decision — the
poll found that only 30% of respondents thought that the Trump
administration should be tougher than former President Barack
Obama on enforcing federal laws against the recreational use of
marijuana.